4 ms·
Given the health and medical play, I think they're questionable in at least a couple of ways. - There are no actions to be taken based on microbiome data - Th
by tossmee_awwwy 8y ago
Given the health and medical play, I think they're questionable in at least a couple of ways.
- There are no actions to be taken based on microbiome data
- There's no government oversight to the quality of their sequencing or bioinformatics
- The reviews don't indicate the kits are useful
https://www.highya.com/ubiome-reviews https://www.highya.com/ubiome-reviews
Maybe a good comparison would be if Theranos gave you a 'subjective wellness score' instead of standard test results
- refurb 8y agoYou summed up my concerns better than I could. I remember when uBiome launched out of UCSF. I remember thinking “ok, they’ll sequence your microbiome and then...what exactly?”
- funfunfun 8y agoI gave my data files from uBiome to a microbiologist and was told 'these data are too low in quality to analyze'
- refurb 8y agoYikes. To be honest, the microbiome space is interesting and may hold promise for therapeutics - and maybe uBiome will be a leader in it. But there is a very good chance that nothing will come of this whatsoever.
- Nzen 8y agoa fantasy: I get intestinal distress from food/water while on vacation. I take antibiotics to clear the problem. At a later date, I have a fecal transplant [0]. It couldn't be mine, because that was the site of the problem. Instead, I order a culture that matches my previous microbiome distribution. [0] https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/probiotics-if-you-dont-just-just-poop-them-out-they-may-muck-up-your-guts/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/probiotics-if-you-do...
- refurb 8y agoI think to do this, you'd need data points that don't yet exist: if your microbiome changes from antibiotic use, will you suffer health effects (beyond infection with a disease causing bacteria like C. difficle)?